Licence to Kill (1989)

[zen007]

Timothy Dalton's last Bond film is said to have faced production challenges including a writers' strike and being unable to shoot the film in the UK. The film remains the lowest-grossing Bond adventure, however, over the years, it has gained recognization esp. as a relatively different type of Bond film, and attracted a fan following, which every Bond film should.


Positives

Fleming material: This film mixes various parts of Fleming's books. The torture of Leiter is from the book "Live and Let Die". Bond working for Sanchez is from the book "The Man with the Golden Gun". Milton Krest is from the short story "The Hildebrand Rarity".

Action/Stunts: LTK sports a few memorable stunts - a) Bond fishing for Sanchez's plane, b) Bond's capture of the seaplane, and c) the truck chase.

Bond-Sanchez: Bond and Sanchez drive the film.


Negatives

Relative to top Bond films, LTK has too many negatives that probably outweigh the positives esp. when looked at it as a Bond film:

Bond's motivation: This is the first film where Bond goes rogue. However, his motivation for going rogue is questionable (or a mere excuse to get him after Sanchez). Over the years, we have seen many of Bond's key associates get killed but Bond usually does not overreact. In this film, he even jeopardizes the Istanbul mission, which many times I wonder how the film would have been if he had gone to Istanbul. To avenge Leiter-Della, he gets many people killed including Sharky and the good folks of HK narcotics.

Bond-Leiter relationship: Difficult to fathom that they were this close esp. for a film released at that point in time. Would it have served the film better if a different character (even introduced for the purpose) was to be avenged?

Bond-Bond girls relationship: Like all (or most) Bond films, the Bond girls are good to look at, however, the film suffers from a lack of meaningful relationships. Bond meets Pam at the seedy bar, and they are immediately involved. When they land in the fictitious country, Bond is happy to pay her for her service (whatever they were) and let her go (and he attempts to do this many times in the film for different reasons). In the Living Daylights, we saw a relationship develop b/w Bond and Kara ... Pam also suffered from the DAF syndrome where much like Case in DAF, Pam starts off as a competent smart professional only to be reduced to a jealous girlfriend as the film progresses.

Q and his gadgets: It is good to see Q in the field but his role is more of a comic relief which contrasts with the original tone of the film. Most of his gadgets are more like toys.

Tone: Talking about the tone, it varies too much. For a film supposed to be relatively dark, it has Leiter fooling around in the hospital despite the death of his wife. We discussed Pam and Q too.

Dalton's performance (Action hero v Bond conundrum): Dalton is good, however, he does go overboard with the hard edge. The franchise got his performance spot on in the previous film, TLD, which is reminiscent of Bond in Fleming's books ... While it is a good performance considering what the film was aiming for (an intense action hero), a downgrade over his previous "Bond" performance.

Influence of other films: Too much influence of other films including the popular 80s action films/shows, Yojimbo/A Fistful of Dollars, etc. Even the cast and music director are taken from Die Hard and Lethal Weapon.

Full of weak segments: Positives are scattered among many weak segments. The film takes time to kick off, devoting or wasting time in trying to convince viewers of the Bond-Leiter relationship, Bond taking on M, the action at Krest's marine research center, and the unnecessary segment at the seedy bar where Bond meets Pam ... Some of the segments lack that Bond production touch.


And I can probably go on and on.

Licence to Kill Movie CLIP - Private Vendetta (1989) HD - YouTube

How do you rate LTK? ... Overall, I think this is an interesting Bond film that focuses on being different and showcasing a relatively intense Bond. It can be enjoyed for its positives once you get used to its negatives ... It probably works more as an action film than a Bond film, therefore, would not rate it among the top-tier Bond films. It is more inconsistent than what I would prefer.

[Winslow Leach]

LICENCE TO KILL is one of my top five favorite Bond films. It's a classic, and Dalton is excellent.

[harry o]

Looking back I prefer it to "living daylights" rated Tim Dalton very highly in both movies though.

[Ruemorgue10]

My takeaway of Bond's motivation in License to Kill:

Bond is not only exacting revenge for Felix and Della, it's vengeance for Tracy. The circumstances of Della's death is history repeated, which hits a traumatic nerve within 007. None of this is said aloud in the film (save for the brief mention of Bond being married once), but consider the affect of seeing Della's dead body, still in her wedding dress, on Bond's psyche in that moment; all the trauma comes flooding back and it's enough for Bond to risk everything to make Sanchez pay for what he did.

[The Sovereign]

It's a terrific movie - probably falls just barely on the outside of my Bond top ten. And under no circumstances could I consider Carrie Lowell & Talisa Soto a negative.

[zen007]

John Glen is among by favorite Bond directors. However, both his “kill” films are relatively inconsistent.

[Markgway]

My favourite Bond film. So there.

[DR Herbert West]

Top 5.

[jess1581]

Licence to Kill>The Living Daylights

TLD is overall good, but it was a bit more sluggish at times and there's a lack of a strong central villain. I had more of a blast with LTK.

Both have great 80's soundtracks though.

[Ben_C]

Love both Dalton 007 films (they also both have great opening title songs too). Shame he only only got to do two of them, the only benefit though is being able to do the “Dalton double” and watch both back to back.

[Number_6]

Not surprised it was the lowest-grossing Bond as it came out the summer of Batman/Last Crusade.

I liked this film when it came out, I think I even went to see it twice in the theatre. I remember there being some "controversy" when it came out because of how violent it was. Interesting, considering the turn the franchise took in recent years.

I think what undermined the Felix motivation is that in all the appearances he made in the franchise up to that point they never cast the same actor more than once. As a Bond fan I recognized the significance but I think for the average audience member it was just "some guy Bond is friends with". Re-casting the actor from Live and Let Die didn't help in that regard either.

[zen007]

Below is probably the least interesting action segment in a Bond film:

LICENCE TO KILL | Barrelhead bar fight - YouTube

This segment does not even look like it is from a Bond film, which is what it is being judged as.

[ProfXtacy]

It had a spooky location shoot too - the photograph of the flaming claw is very eerie.

[GrouchoFan]

"Bless your heart!"

[BudBaxter]

I still find it slightly ironic that it was slagged off at the time for the exact same reasons Casino Royale got praised for 17 years later ('darker', 'harder edged', 'more serious'). Ahead of its time?


My favourite Bond actor can change on a monthly basis, but Licence to Kill will always be my favourite Bond film & Carey Lowell will forever be my favourite Bond girl.

[jess1581]

Originally Posted by Number_6

Not surprised it was the lowest-grossing Bond as it came out the summer of Batman/Last Crusade.

I liked this film when it came out, I think I even went to see it twice in the theatre. I remember there being some "controversy" when it came out because of how violent it was. Interesting, considering the turn the franchise took in recent years.

I think what undermined the Felix motivation is that in all the appearances he made in the franchise up to that point they never cast the same actor more than once. As a Bond fan I recognized the significance but I think for the average audience member it was just "some guy Bond is friends with". Re-casting the actor from Live and Let Die didn't help in that regard either.

Don't forget Ghostbusters 2, Lethal Weapon 2, and Honey I Shrunk The Kids. Licence to Kill was ambushed.

[Ruemorgue10]

Originally Posted by GrouchoFan

"Bless your heart!"

What did he promise you, his heart? Give her his heart.

[BudBaxter]

Originally Posted by zen007

Bond-Leiter relationship: Difficult to fathom that they were this close esp. for a film released at that point in time. Would it have served the film better if a different character (even introduced for the purpose) was to be avenged?

At this point in the franchise, Leiter is pretty much the closest thing Bond has to a lifelong friend, as everyone else he meets usually dies. The fact that he's played by the same actor who portrayed him in Live & let Die just cements the relationship.

I suppose they could have killed/maimed Moneypenny instead, but I don't think anyone would have been up for that in 1989...

[zen007]

Originally Posted by BudBaxter

At this point in the franchise, Leiter is pretty much the closest thing Bond has to a lifelong friend, as everyone else he meets usually dies. The fact that he's played by the same actor who portrayed him in Live & let Die just cements the relationship.

I suppose they could have killed/maimed Moneypenny instead, but I don't think anyone would have been up for that in 1989...

I think that arc was chosen because a) Elements from LALD (the book) could be used (maybe a lazy attempt), b) With Leiter, it is easy for Bond to go "rogue" (while ignoring his own duties and mission to Istanbul) as CIA or whatever (the unnecessarily sacrificed HK narcotics for e.g.) is chasing Sanchez.

It does not necessarily work though esp. with Leiter appearing less serious after his wife's death. It creates inconsistencies with the tone too.

[GrouchoFan]

If they were going for continuity, they should’ve just brought back the Felix Leiter from the previous movie, instead of one from 15 years earlier who never even met Timothy Dalton. As a longtime Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea viewer, it was nice to see David Hedison again, but it made no sense.